


Shoujo Manga Brings People Together

by Amettrine



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 21:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6723817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amettrine/pseuds/Amettrine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurogane considers her job as a coffee shop barista as a complete waste of time, but the cute girl that shows up sometimes might make it all worth it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoujo Manga Brings People Together

Wednesday evenings were the slowest, time and time again. It was a fact Kurogane had picked up during her shifts as a barista in a coffee shop on the outskirts of her little, well-meaning town. 

She honestly couldn’t complain about it outright; the homey, Western-inspired decor wasn’t hard on the eyes, and was almost never loud. Framed by thick, dark red curtains, the small windows on the front of the coffee shop showed a dreary, quiet sidewalk and almost vacant road. The room inside was warm, well-covered to keep out the cold evening air, though the air inside itself was slightly stuffy from the comings and goings of the countless people as the day had continued. 

Kurogane noticed that nearly every table was vacant and cleaned. Feeling the full extent of the shop’s silence, she looked around and found Souma checking his phone behind the counter to her right. He met her eyes and forced a scowl, one she met all too willingly. He looked back to his phone and scrolled, looking disinterested.

“Waiting for that girl again, huh?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kurogane muttered, polishing a mug for sale to distract herself from the heat in her face.

“I knew it.” Souma straightened up and brushed his hair from his eyes, looking at her with a triumphant expression. “The blonde one, right? You’re less focused when you listen to her order, I’ve noticed that. Real subtle.” he said, ducking as Kurogane threw the towel at his face. 

“Kinda creepy that you’ve been staring at me this whole time, isn’t it?” Kurogane glared at him and folded her arms defensively, cursing herself for letting the attention go unnoticed. Her face reddenned in the silence as Souma took his time folding the towel and setting it down on the counter. 

“Yeah, keep trying. You’ll get a good comeback sooner or later,” Souma replied, rearranging the various jars in front of him. 

Kurogane fought the urge to throw something else at him. 

The sound of someone’s shoes brushing the store’s threshold broke up their argument. Souma and Kurogane both raised their heads to look at the new customer, and upon seeing them Souma grinned and straightened up. He walked past Kurogane and patted her shoulder, whispering a smug ‘good luck’ to her before slipping away into the storage room. 

Wordless from both confusion and annoyance, she sighed heavily and let her feet bring her to the empty portion of the counter to stand in front of their first customer in hours.

The woman brought her eyes around the room, taking her surroundings in with a casual smile. The upturned corners on her mouth brought and expression that didn’t quite meet her eyes, but upon seeing Kurogane, her eyes softened, and Kurogane melted internally as she looked to the ground and broke the contact, a slight blush on her face before straightening up again and walking up to the counter. Her blue eyes searched Kurogane’s face openly, blonde eyelashes catching in long bangs as she blinked. “Good evening,” she said, and the soft, sing-song lilt of her voice caused Kurogane to almost steady herself with one hand behind the counter. “Looks like a slow day again, doesn’t it?”

“A-again?” Kurogane stammered thoughtlessly, and the woman hid her mouth behind a hand as she laughed. Smooth move, idiot. she thought to herself, already trying to dispel her worries of this conversation ending badly.

“You don’t remember? You’ve been taking my order for the past three days, you know. Same time each day, too.” she said, and Kurogane cursed herself for forgetting the girl she had been thinking about since she first saw her. The pale, almost ghost-like presence had always been something of a ray of sunshine in Kurogane’s less-than-exciting shift, but at times she found an empty spot in her memory where Fai should have been. Despite always having a bright smile, she rarely ever remembered Fai’s name, only her smile barely meeting her eyes, or the flash of her long hair as she went out the door.

“Oh, uh, right. Sorry, sitting in a shop alone kind of does something to you.” Kurogane scratched the back of her neck, and she could feel the hair under hands raise slightly as Fai laughed at her again. This time though the laugh was genuine, one that made the woman close her eyes and caused her shoulders to briefly shake. Kurogane found herself staring again. 

Putting her hands into the pockets of her peacoat, Fai looked around at the various menus on the back wall before turning her eyes back to Kurogane. “Do you remember my order? With how you reacted every time I’ve told you, I hope you did.” Kurogane had already begun starting the machines and shuffling around grounds and toppings behind the counter. “Every sweet thing we have in stock? I don’t remember the specifics, but that’s about it, right?”

“Right.” Fai said, laughing again. She followed Kurogane on the other side of the counter again and the barista, already lost in the second-nature movements that came with her job, didn’t notice as Fai’s eyes traced each movement of her fingers, each angle of her wrist, the miniscule changes in her forearm as her fingers moved. “So, have you worked here long?”

Taking a moment to push the immediate internal struggle of trying to come up with follow-up idle conversation topics, Kurogane brought her hands down to her sides again as the machines did their share, balling her fists loosely and shoving them into the small pockets on her apron. “A couple months, I think? It’s just an in-between job, something to keep at least a little money moving.” She set herself back into motion as she counted down under her breath, dislodging the various pieces well beyond Fai’s knowledge. She made a point of feigning indifference in her voice, though she cringed inwardly as she heard how gruff she sounded. “Nothing special.”

Fai nodded, pulling over a chair from a nearby table and sitting down, crossing her ankles and placing her hands in her lap. “It’s something to do, though, right?” she said, looking over and seeing Kurogane nodding in response. The barista moved over to another section of the back counter, wiping her hands with a small towel she picked up before working with the next round of ingredients. “What about you?” Kurogane asked.

“Cafe waitress. Not the behind-the-counter stuff, but seating people and waiting tables.” she replied, playing with her fingers. “That makes us a little similar, doesn’t it?”

“Similar?” Kurogane repeated incredulously, looking from her dark skin to Fai’s pale cheeks. A flushed reached the same face as Fai laughed again, and Kurogane quickly looked away. “That isn’t what I meant,” Fai insisted good-naturedly, waving a hand. She opened her mouth, and Kurogane noticed a look in her eyes that seemed like she would have liked to say something more before Kurogane had come up and placed Fai’s coffee on the counter.

“Oh, thank you.” The woman brushed a long strand of hair behind her ear and rummaged through her bag and pulling out her phone before finding her wallet. Kurogane tried not to stare, but a glint of pink and gold caught her eye and she looked intently at the charm hanging from the bottom corner of her phone.

“Is that… Sakura-chan?”

Fai almost jumped at the name, and met Kurogane’s eyes as she flushed again. She laughed nervously and picked up the tiny charm; a cute, tiny model of a little girl. “Oh, her! Haha, um… yeah. I know it’s a little old-school, but I’ve loved that series since I was a kid.” she rambled, looking at Kurogane and searching her face for what she guessed to be disdain, or a smirk paired with ‘Are you kidding me?’

“Are you kidding me? Same here, actually.” Kurogane admitted, scratching the back of her neck again. “I would watch it with my sister every morning.”

Fai seemed shocked. For a moment she just stood there, looking at Kurogane with wide eyes until another bout of laughter shook her shoulders. “Sorry, that just surprised me. I mean, you?” she said between laughs. “Ms. tall, dark, and handsome, watching old-school shoujo? That’s really cute, actually.” 

Dark? Handsome? Cute? Kurogane watched Fai recover from her laughter, dumbfounded. Was she flirting? She had to be. She had to be.

Kurogane stood, staring at Fai. Caught up in her overanalysis, she didn’t notice the woman’s outstretched hand with her money. Both of them shifted slightly and their fingertips brushed as Kurogane took it from her, causing Kurogane to quickly move back and get her change without meeting her eye. Fai, noticing Kurogane’s reddening cheeks and shifting shoulders, smiled and set the cup she had picked up back onto the counter. “Why don’t we talk a little longer? I have a little bit of time to kill, and you… seem to, also. Maybe over coffee? If that’s alright.? I’d love to talk with you more.” she said, looking around at the otherwise vacant shop. 

Kurogane stood, silent. 

Was this real? A cute stranger, offering to talk over coffee? Wanting to talk? To her?

Fai looked at Kurogane skeptically, picking up her cup again. “Maybe… not?”

Kurogane was quick to wave her hand and shook her head vigorously. “No! No, no, no, not at all. I-I’d, I’d love to. That sounds great.” She smiled, but with the way Fai covered her mouth again and how her eyes crinkled at the corners, it must have come off lopsided and foolish. She felt her ears burn, and watched Fai stifle her laughs behind a delicate hand.

“Sounds great.” she said, recovering from her giggles and looking at her with clear blue eyes. “I’ll pick a seat, if you want to make your cup.” She turned the cup in her hands, a small gesture Kurogane noticed as nervous fidgeting despite her calm, polite tone. 

“No, it won’t take long. Wait just a second,” Kurogane insisted, turning quickly back to the coffeemaker and pouring a cup without thinking. With her free hand she pushed aside the small hinged wooden door separating the counter from the rest of the shop and tried not to obviously hurry to Fai’s side to walk with her to their table. 

Fai had chosen one close to the window, close enough to show the view outside but far enough away so the cold air outside didn’t leech what warmth was still inside the shop. The two sat down and placed the respective drinks in front of them. Fai looked at the cup in front of Kurogane, and looked up at her and asked, “You drink it black?”

Kurogane stared at her for a moment before following her eyes down through the steam to the coffee in front of her. 

There had to be some way to cover up an oversight like that. Maybe I can play it off somehow? This is just sad. “Uh, yeah. All the time.” she confirmed, relaxing as Fai raised her eyebrows and took a sip from hers. Nailed it. 

The relaxed air of the coffee shop soothed the tongues of both women, and gradually fragmented statements turned into longer sentences, more intelligent conversations. As they continued, Kurogane noticed that Fai became more expressive, her voice becoming louder and her hands swinging as she talked about anything and everything as Kurogane offered small words of acknowledgement or something to further the conversation. Their talk had revealed to Kurogane that Fai worked jobs as a waitress for both a cafe and another professional restaurant, and that her progress on her degree in psychology was wearing on her more than she let on. That led to a badly-worded compliment (more of a flirting attempt on Kurogane’s end) on Fai’s make-up from Kurogane, which earned her a sly look and more flushed faces. 

Fai continued, growing more bubbly and restless as she went on. Kurogane noticed that her eyes had brightened; the smile reached her eyes, and each time she laughed at Kurogane’s expense-- which was more times than Kurogane could count by then-- it lit up her whole face. She also found some kind of sick joy in calling Kurogane by increasingly more and more overly-cute nicknames. Fai had insisted that she had to get used to Japanese, but Kurogane guessed that the consistent use of “Kuro-chan”, “Kuro-tan”, and “Kurocchi” had nothing to do with it. Each time Kurogane had to remind herself to keep her voice down before she protested, Fai would respond with, “What? A cute nickname for a cute girl? I think it fits perfectly!”

A small chime from Fai’s phone startled her from her explanation of complex thought processes, something that had gone far over Kurogane’s head, and she read the notification with quickly widening eyes. She stood up abruptly, and Kurogane did the same instinctively, tense. “I’m sorry! I just, I just lost track of time I guess! I was supposed to take over someone’s shift at the cafe today and I forgot!” She shuffled over to Kurogane and hugged her quickly, giving Kurogane no time to hug her back and instead immediately trying to place which shampoo or perfume Fai used. “Um, here! Hold on. I’m so sorry,” Fai started rambling again, pulling out and old receipt and pink gel pen from her bag. She scribbled down a sequence of numbers and shoved it into Kurogane’s hands hurriedly, straightening her jacket and the strap of her bag. “It was really great to talk to you! I’ll come back and see you tomorrow, I promise!” she said, almost too loud in the quiet little shop, and Kurogane didn’t get the chance to even say good-bye before the blonde had rushed out of the shop and made her way down the sidewalk. 

Kurogane, like she had done before, simply stood. The smell of Fai’s perfume still lingered on her chest, and she pulled her apron up to her nose to smell it. Vanilla? Roses? She couldn’t tell. Somehow to Kurogane, though, the mysteriously unplaceable smell fit Fai perfectly. 

Distracted, she absentmindedly looked down at the paper in her other hand. It took her seconds to recognize the scribbles on the paper as Fai’s number, ended with a small heart and a little note in flowery handwriting reading call me~!. 

Maybe this job won’t be so bad.


End file.
